As treaties and trade agreements are implemented this year, more U.S. companies are looking at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for fresh business opportunities. Fortunately, a whole host of logistics and transportation service providers are laying the groundwork to overcome inherent infrastructure challenges.

Today, U.S. trucking companies face more regulations than any time in history—and they claim this “regulatory tsunami” is putting the clamp on U.S. productivity. During this session shippers will gain a better understanding of the current state of trucking regulations (HOS & CSA) and the impact they're having on capacity and rates.

The United States Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported this week that trade using surface transportation between the United States and its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners Canada and Mexico was up 13.8 percent in September 2011 compared to September 2010, hitting $77.7 billion.

As freight transportation volumes are primarily showing flat or modest growth levels, intermodal still is showing very strong growth prospects, with the very likely possibility that the drivers for future intermodal gains are very promising.

As soon as the price per gallon for diesel eclipsed the $4 per gallon mark a week ago, it went back below $4, with a 4.6 cent decline to $3.964 per gallon, according to data from the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Monday, November 28, 2011

In what could possibly viewed as a late in the year jump-start for the economy, the National Retail Federation (NRF) said that Thanksgiving and Black Friday holiday spending—in stores and on the Web—hit historic highs.

The financial crisis in Europe and overall economic uncertainty are continuing to extend the trend of flattish and slightly declining volumes, according to the most recent edition of the Global Port Tracker Report from Hackett Associates and the Bremen Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics.